Hurtigruten plans to “significantly” increase sales through the trade in the coming years as it looks to widen the split between its expedition and Norwegian products.
The line divided its operations into Hurtigruten Expeditions and Hurtigruten Norway in 2021 as it sought to meet demand for expedition cruising, which it said increased during the pandemic.
It now plans to completely separate the two departments as there is less “synergy” between them than the company originally expected, Hurtigruten Expeditions Group chief executive Daniel Skjeldam (pictured) told Travel Weekly.
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Hurtigruten Norway will continue to be based out of Oslo and will sail solely in the Norway region, but within the next six months Hurtigruten Expedition headquarters will be relocated to London as the product moves away from Norwegian sailings and focuses more on offering cruises in the rest of the world.
As part of the division plans, the cruise line will set up “completely separate” UK trade teams to provide more focused support and advice for agents.
“We see a massive amount of potential on both units and they have large growth opportunities ahead of them, but we now want them to develop in different directions,” said Skjeldam.
“We thought there would be more synergy on the commercial side of both products but there isn’t as much as we anticipated which meant we used to have to choose which one to grow whereas now we can grow both.
“[The split] is very important for how we deal with the trade as it allows us to offer different models so, as the two companies develop, they can adapt to the needs of the trade in a way they haven’t always been able to do because it’s just been one team representing everything.”
Skjeldam predicts the Hurtigruten Expedition product will be more trade focused than the Norway product as it is “more complicated” and requires additional expertise.
He anticipates trade sales will account for 70% of all Hurtigruten Expedition bookings within the next few years.
To support these plans, Hurtigruten Expeditions recently appointed former P&O Cruises executive Nathaniel Sherborne as vice-president of sales and marketing for the UK and Nordics with, the task of engaging with the trade and educating agents on how best to sell the product.
“Today’s trade component for the group in the UK is about 50:50 with direct sales, but I think the trade portion of selling will go up to 70:30 in the next few years as Nathaniel gets out on the road to find some great agents to work with,” said Skjeldam.
“While we have not yet taken on any new team members, we are looking to strengthen the Hurtigruten Expeditions team to build support for the trade.
“We want to bring the ships closer to the travel trade community in the UK and we have an internal commitment to bring more partners on board so I can promise a lot more focus on offering fam trips.
“Over the next nine months, the trade is going to see us working much more closely with them and a key priority will be to build agents’ knowledge around this industry.”